A honeycomb filter includes a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure having porous partition walls provided, surrounding a plurality of cells which serve as fluid through channels extending from an inflow end face to an outflow end face, and a porous plugging portion provided either at an end on the inflow end face or the outflow end face of the cells, wherein the plugging portion is composed of a porous material, the honeycomb structure has a central region and a circumferential region, and a ratio of an area of the circumferential region with respect to that of the central region ranges from 0.1 to 0.5, porosity of a central plugging portion in the central region is lower than that of a circumferential plugging portion in the circumferential region, and the porosity of the central plugging portions ranges from 60% to 68%, and that of the circumferential plugging portions ranges from 70% to 85%.

A ceramic filter is provided with a porous substrate 3 “made of ceramic and having partition walls 1 separating and forming a plurality of cells 2 extending from one end face 11 to the other end face 12”, a separation membrane 21 “made of ceramic and disposed on wall surfaces of the cells 2”, and glass seals 31 disposed on the one end face 11 and on the other end face 12 “so as not to cover openings of the cells 2”. Ceramic particles having a thermal expansion coefficient of 90 to 110% of that of glass contained in the glass seals 31 are dispersed in the glass seals 31. There is provided a ceramic filter usable for a long period of time in high temperature conditions.

The honeycomb filter includes a honeycomb substrate having porous partition walls defining a plurality of cells and plugging portions. In a cross section, the cells are arranged so that a periphery of an inlet plugged cell including an open end whose shape is a square in which a length of one side is L1 is surrounded with four rectangular outlet plugged cells each including an open end whose shape is a rectangle in which a length of one side is L1 and a length of the other side is L2 (L1>L2) and four square outlet plugged cells each including an open end whose shape is a square in which a length of one side is L2. A partition wall center distance a, a partition wall center distance b and a partition wall thickness t satisfy the following equation (1):
0.95<b/at<1.90   (1).

An exhaust gas purification filter comprises a base material part, a catalyst layer, and sealing parts. The base material part comprises porous partition walls. The catalyst layer is supported on pore walls of the partition walls. The partition walls supporting the catalyst layer comprise 10% or less of pores having a pore diameter of 50 μm or more. In the pore diameter distribution in the partition walls supporting the catalyst layer, the pore diameter D50 at which the cumulative pore volume becomes 50% is 10 μm or more. The pore diameter D50, and the pore diameter D10 at which the cumulative pore volume becomes 10%, satisfy the relationship of the following Expression 1.

(D50−D10)/D50≤0.9  Expression 1

A ceramic honeycomb structure having pluralities of flow paths partitioned by porous cell walls, (a) the cell walls having porosity of 50-63%; and (b) in a pore diameter distribution in the cell walls measured by mercury porosimetry, (i) pore diameters at cumulative pore volumes corresponding to particular percentages of the total pore volume being within specific ranges and having specific relationships; (ii) the difference between a logarithm of the pore diameter at a cumulative pore volume corresponding to 20% of the total pore volume and a logarithm of the pore diameter at 80% being 0.39 or less; and (iii) the volume of pores of more than 100 μm being 0.03 cm.sup.3/g or less.

A ceramic honeycomb structure having pluralities of flow paths partitioned by porous cell walls; (a) the cell walls having porosity of 50-60%; and (b) in a pore diameter distribution in the cell walls measured by mercury porosimetry, (i) pore diameters at cumulative pore volumes corresponding to particular percentages of the total pore volume being within specific ranges and having specific relationships; and (ii) the difference between a logarithm of the pore diameter at a cumulative pore volume corresponding to 20% of the total pore volume and a logarithm of the pore diameter at 80% being 0.39 or less, and its production method.

The present disclosure relates to porous ceramic compositions and porous ceramic articles, such as honeycomb structure bodies and porous ceramic filters. In various embodiments, a particulate filter is disclosed herein; in some of these embodiments, the particulate filter is a gasoline particulate filter (GPF) and is suitable for use with a gasoline engine and treating its exhaust, and in some of the embodiments, the particulate filter is a diesel particulate filter (DPF) and is suitable for use with a diesel engine and treating its exhaust.

In a porous body, a surface layer thickness Ts takes a relatively small value satisfying P≧0.54 Ts (formula (1)), the surface layer thickness Ts being derived by a microstructure analysis using the porous-body data that is prepared through three-dimensional scanning of a region including a surface (inflow plane 61) of the porous body. Here, P denotes a porosity [%] of the porous body, and 0%<P<100% and 0 μm<Ts are assumed. The surface layer thickness Ts is derived as a distance in a thickness direction (X direction) between a surface-layer region start plane 92 in which a straight-pore opening ratio becomes 98% or less for the first time and a surface-layer region end plane 93 in which the straight-pore opening ratio becomes 1% or less for the first time.

An exhaust gas purification filter is configured to he disposed in an exhaust passage in a gasoline engine. The exhaust gas purification filter includes partition walls including a plurality of pores, a plurality of cells partitioned by the partition walls, and sealing portions alternately sealing ends of a plurality of the cells in the exhaust gas purification filter. The partition walls each have an average pore diameter of more than 16 μm and less than 21 μm, and have a ratio of an average surface opening diameter of the pores in a partition wall surface to the average pore diameter of the partition wall of 0.66 or more and 0.94 or less.

A porous ceramic honeycomb body (10) including intersecting walls that form channels (22) extending axially from a first end face to a second end face and layered plugs (62) comprised of a first layer (64) disposed on channel walls and a second layer (66) disposed inward toward an axial center of each respective channel on the first layer. The plugs seal at least one of a first portion of the channels at the first end face and a second portion of channels at the second end face of the porous ceramic honeycomb body.